Reference

Screen Printing Glossary

Every term a printer runs into, explained in plain English — organized by where you meet it in the workflow. This page grows as the site does.

Screens & Stencil Making

Mesh count: Threads per inch in the screen fabric. Low counts (40–86) lay down heavy ink deposits; high counts (200–355) hold fine detail. — read the guide
Emulsion: Light-sensitive coating on the mesh that hardens under UV light, forming the printing stencil.
Screen tension: How tightly mesh is stretched on the frame, measured in N/cm. Low tension causes blurry prints and registration drift.
Off-contact: The small gap between screen and substrate that lets the mesh snap back after the squeegee passes.
Exposure time: How long the coated screen is exposed to UV light. Under-exposed stencils wash out; over-exposed ones lose detail.
Reclaiming: Stripping emulsion and ink from a used screen so the mesh can be coated and reused.

Plastisol: PVC-based garment ink that cures with heat (~320°F/160°C). Opaque, forgiving, the textile industry standard.
UV ink: Ink that cures instantly under ultraviolet light. No VOCs and fast, but demands tight process control.
Solvent-based ink: Ink that dries by solvent evaporation. Excellent adhesion on difficult plastics, but slow and VOC-heavy.
Viscosity: Ink thickness. Too thick prints poorly through mesh; too thin bleeds. Adjusted with thinners within maker limits.
Adhesion promoter: Additive or primer that helps ink bond to low surface energy plastics like PP and PE.
Thinner / retarder: Solvents that reduce viscosity or slow drying, preventing ink from drying in the screen.

Squeegee: The rubber blade that pushes ink through the mesh. Hardness (durometer) and angle control ink deposit.
Flood bar: Blade that spreads a thin ink layer over the stencil between prints, keeping the image area filled.
Exposure unit: UV light source used to harden emulsion and create the stencil.
Flash dryer: Heat source that gels ink between colors in multi-color garment printing.
Tension meter: Gauge that measures mesh tension in N/cm. The first tool to reach for when prints go blurry.

Registration: Aligning multiple color screens so each color lands exactly in position.
Halftone: Tiny dots of varying size that simulate gradients and photographs with a single ink color.
Durometer: Squeegee blade hardness on the Shore A scale. 60 is soft, 80 is stiff, 70 is the all-rounder.
Curing: The final heat or UV process that makes ink reach full durability. Under-cured ink washes off.
Dot gain: Halftone dots printing larger than intended, darkening the image. Managed via mesh, exposure and pressure.

Cross-hatch test: Adhesion test: cut a grid through the ink, apply tape, pull. Rated 0B–5B by how much ink lifts.
Pinholes: Tiny unprinted dots in solid areas, usually from dust in emulsion or under-exposure.
Screen clogging: Ink drying in the mesh and blocking the image area. Common with fast-drying solvent inks.
Ghosting / haze: Faint image stain left in mesh after reclaiming, from ink or emulsion residue.
Fibrillation: Garment fibers poking through the ink film after washing, making prints look faded.
Sawtoothing: Jagged print edges when mesh threads distort fine lines. Fixed with higher mesh counts or thread angle.

FAI (First Article Inspection): Full verification of the first production piece before a run starts. Standard practice in automotive supply chains.
MOQ: Minimum order quantity a supplier will accept.
PPAP: Production Part Approval Process — the documentation package automotive customers require before mass production.
Color matching (Pantone): Mixing or verifying ink color against a standardized swatch system under controlled lighting.